The origin of Alzheimer's disease may date back to prehistoric times.

With approximately 35 million people affected worldwide, Alzheimer's disease is a burden to which medicine can still offer few solutions. While this condition may seem like a "modern" epidemic, Alzheimer's actually originated thousands of years ago, in prehistoric times. At that time, its mechanism is thought to have served to protect the brain from infection by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi, before evolving into the neurodegenerative disease we know today. An interview with Rudolph Tanzi, professor of neurology at Harvard University (USA), director of the genetics unit at Brigham General Hospital, and author of a recent article in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

"When we started our research 20 years ago, it was a truly novel idea."